Wednesday, 20 April 2005

All Kinds of Growing Going On!

Tim and I have a new pet - actually, quite a few new pets. Each one of those little crystals you see there is actually a colony of many different kinds of bacteria. The bacteria are all named various scientific-sounding names, but when together in a clump - or grain, as it is more commonly called - it is known as kefir. There are two different kinds of kefir grains that grow in either milk or a sugar-water solution respectively. We have the water kind. I am still in search of milk grains, which look more like little bits of cauliflower.

Right now we have two jars sitting on our kitchen counter growing water kefir concoctions. The first one is just the solution that the grains came in - a mixture of sugar water and organic raisins (the raisins have to be organic or at least unsulphured, because the preservatives will kill your grains). I have been mixing this original concoction with various things to drink in the morning. The first day I just added a bit of lime juice to see what it tasted like. This morning I blended up some of the liquid with frozen berries and it turned out sort of like a foamy, thick fruit cocktail - the effect that the kefir has on the water is to make it a little bit fizzy. The second concoction I just started this morning and will get to try in two days once it is "done"; It is a mixture of ginger tea and sugar and kefir grains. The kefir eats the sugar and then you're left with the tea that has all these little bacterias in it that are really good for you, helping with digestion and also imparting a balancing quality to whatever liquid they grow in, helping to kill off any bad bacteria that might be growing in the body and grow new good bacteria.

There are many different variations on the water kefir theme. I plan on trying a juice kefir soon, with both grape juice and green coconut juice. I also found a recipe to make a ginger beer type drink which I am really excited to try.

After the warmish day yesterday my swiss chard also started growing noticably. A few days ago only one or two little sprouts were pushing up through the soil, but now I've got three noticable rows and some of the shoots are a few inches tall. My basil is growing thicker, but not so tall yet. I'm hoping to plant the rocket salad soon, but I think we need to get another planterbox.

Our stash of baby stuff has also grown since the shower on Sunday, obviously! I also added to it myself, putting in an order for some very special tie-dyed onesies in sizes for all stages of development and also a matching tank top for me; I've got to have at least one cutesy-wootsy matchy-poo outfit with the baby, right? And there's no way I'm going to wear something with little ducks on it, as cute as they are.